Loveliness in Paris
by RenaRoo
Summary: Ladybugs are seemingly attacking Paris on the first day of spring, leading Ladybug and Chat Noir to ban together and question what would bring such a loveliness of such great size to swarm on Paris. The solution, as it turns out, is something Ladybug herself never could have expected.


Prompt: ( theeffar ) You know, you should write some Miraculous Ladybug

A/N: Why what a wonderful and totally impromptu suggestion, my closest friend who doesn't at all cave to my silly desires of needing randomly specific prompts from time to time ;P

Miraculous Ladybug and associated characters © ZAG

 **Loveliness in Paris**

Spring in Paris is something that can only be appreciated on the streets themselves. There is a cool warmth the blusters through, carrying off the winter chill, a constant mix of smells from fresh bakeries and vendors, and the return of the warm glow of the sun bounding over the tops of ancient beauty unlike anywhere else in the world.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng, as a Parisian born girl, feels the change of Paris from winter to spring deep in her lungs with the first breath she takes in outside on her room's balcony. She stretches in the basking warmth, feeling the heat in her jet black hair and lets it flow through her body from the stretch of her fingers to the tips of her toes as she reaches down to flex.

She appreciates spring in Paris as much as any normal Parisian would, but she knows she is the furthest thing from a _normal_ Parisian.

And her small red and black totem, flying in from Marinette's door to just hovering beside her cheek is only part of the reason why.

Her kwami, Tikki, looks very pleased to be at Marinette's side in the morning, a small smile gracing the mysterious creature's face. " _Bonjour,_ Marinette! It is a beautiful morning in Paris!"

Smiling herself, Marinette finishes her morning stretches and stands straight up to twist from left to right at her waist. " _Bonjour,_ Tikki! I wish the winter had not been so short, but I cannot say that I'm unhappy about it finally being spring!"

"Is spring your favorite season?" Tikki asks, bouncing slightly in her flight.

"It _is,"_ Marinette laughs in return.

"You truly are just like a Ladybug then, Marinette! Spring is when they begin to wake up from a winter nap," Tikki informs her.

"When you say it that way, Tikki, it feels like you're right," Marinette concedes. Her smile only grows. "I suppose becoming Ladybug truly is _meant to be_ for me."

And it feels truer than any words Marinette has ever spoken before. She is Paris' own superhero, the famous the world over Ladybug, protecting Paris and all the values of France itself. Unbeknownst to all of her family and dear friends, of course. For a Miraculous must keep their secret, something Tikki, the source of Marinette's abilities as the titular hero, was adamant about.

It can be lonely, with only Chat Noir to understand how she feels, and even then without them being aware of each other's secrets, but the praises and love of her city felt like enough for her. At least as far as she has seen and experienced.

"Marinette, spring is my favorite season, too, but do you know what is _really_ my favorite of all?" Tikki asks with wide, bright eyes trained on Marinette.

"What is that, Tikki?" Marinette asks, suspicious already of what the answer will be.

" _Pain au chocolat,"_ Tikki reveals, taking in a deep breath through her nose and twirling upward into the air. "And I smell that your _maman_ and _papa_ have them baking downstairs!"

Marinette laughs and holds out her hands, cupping them together so that Tikki can land in her palms to be carried downstairs. "Of course they are, Tikki! It's part of the bakery's _menu du petit déjeuner!_ Just like it is every morning."

"And like every morning, you know I want some," Tikki counters in a laugh. "It is a _beautiful_ day in Paris, and it should start off right."

"I agree, Tikki," Marinette says, walking back into her room with her tiny Miraculous in tow. "Everyone deserves to begin the first day of spring great."

* * *

Across Paris, where the history is longer than can be remembered and the homes are grand and majestic buildings with a tangle of long and nearly inescapable halls, it is difficult to realize it is even a spring morning as opposed to any other of the previous days mornings. Especially as it is a weekend and worthy of sleeping in.

Adrien Agreste is a Parisian born boy, but the Paris he knows is one of schedules and tightly held forums. Which makes his ability to lay in his bed in his own room on a weekend, even as the bright sun bears through his windows and across his sheets almost worthy in its own right.

He sits up with a lion-like yawn at last and stretches from the waist up, but his attention is quickly taken by the blur of black that laps around his head before floating right by his left cheek.

 _"Bonne après-midi,_ Adrien!" the black cat-like Miraculous all but sings to him.

Feeling quite rested, Adrien smiles at the Miraculous. " _Bonjour_ , Plagg—" he catches himself and looks around the room, seeing just how bright the sun is shining in on them, before looking back to his tiny friend. "Did you say it is the afternoon already?"

" _Oui,_ " Plagg replies contently before his stomach gives out a loud rumble. The cat-like ears on the Miraculous' head then flatten and he sinks a few inches in the air as he rubs tenderly at his tummy. "I have been so hungry for such a long time waiting for you, Adrien, but I know you, more than anyone else in all of France, deserve a good, long _cat nap_ to recuperate. So I held my tongue and silenced my belly until now." Plagg's tone took on a notable whine. "All this kwami wants in return from the wonderful _Chat Noir_ is just a bit, just a _taste_ of some… Camembert perhaps?"

Flinching at the mere memory of the cheesy smell, Adrien lets out a sigh before arching back against his bed and reaching for the tin he keeps on the bookshelf behind it. There is never any telling when Plagg might need some of his stinky cheese, so Adrien does his best to keep it close.

In return, Plagg smacks his lips and leans in over Adrien's shoulder, making a flip or two in response to the upcoming Camembert reveal. "Oh, Adrien, you are the best! I cannot wait! _Merci! Merci!_ "

"Okay, Plagg, here you go," Adrien replies with a soft smile as he opens the tin. He waits as Plagg flies into the tin, sniffing around for the Camembert squares while Adrien uses his free hand to hold his nose and turn away. With his eyes closed, Adrien just imagines that Plagg is doing as he does every morning for breakfast. At least, he does until the sniffing becomes louder, and he can feel the weight of Plagg bouncing around in the tin, then leaving.

Blinking in surprise, Adrien opens his eyes and turns back around, releasing his nose. There is no smell of Camembert, and Plagg is floating outside of the tin with wide green eyes and a quivering lip.

"What is it?" Adrien asks before looking in the tin for himself. His eyes widen. "Oh no! I'm out of Camembert? But how? There was some in it just last night…" He pauses and looks at Plagg suspiciously.

Catching on, the kwami shakes his head profusely. "I ate only the Camembert you gave me last night, Adrien! You must believe me! I would not have eaten even that much last night if I had known it would leave me so ravished this morning!"

Sighing, Adrien throws off his covers and walks with Plagg to the kitchen, the little Miraculous struggling to keep up before ultimately falling into Adrien's awaiting hands. "We'll just have to get some from the kitchen this morning then, and fill up the tin for today," Adrien decides. "I think Nino was wanting to go somewhere today. Maybe the park."

"Ah, sounds lovely for such a beautiful spring day," Plagg sighs dreamily, resting a cheek against his tiny paw. "I would love to lay in the warm grass and sleep the whole day away. On a wheel of Camembert."

Adrien walks down the halls and into the luxurious kitchen of his family estate without meeting a single person, but he thinks nothing of it, even when he opens the doors of the kitchen cabinets and finds, to his great surprise, that while food boxes and wrappers and jars are sitting on the shelves and in the freezer and fridge, there is not a speck of food in any of them.

"Oh, no," Plagg whines. "Seems like someone forgot to go shopping."

Confused, Adrien puts a hand to his chin. "But that doesn't make any sense. My father's assistant _never_ lets our food get low. Let _alone_ for us to have none." He then looks at the Miraculous in concern. "And wasn't there food in here just last night? When I got my night snack before bed?"

Plagg covers his mouth. " _Scare bleu!_ Adrien, a food thief has come into your house and stolen all the wonderful Camembert!"

Adrien makes a face at the cat and shakes his head. "That doesn't seem right, does it?" He then looks to the small screen television by the counter and walks over to turn it on. "Let's see if the news knows anything about it."

After switching a few channels to reach TVi, Adrien watches as a worried looking _Madame_ Chamack looked straight back from in front of the news station's backdrop which was showing a swarm of red and black bugs flocking across the city to the horror of dozens all around.

"Paris is in chaos once more as it seems that a _loveliness of ladybugs_ swarms the city, eating much of any and every bit of food they find!" _Madame_ Chamack explains. "Now the city wonders whatever shall happen to their food and where, just where, is Ladybug and Chat Noir in this fearful time?"

Adrien's chest swells and he clenches his fist where his ring sits. "Chat Noir is right here. Plagg!" he calls to reach out toward his Miraculous only to find that his call is not heeded. "Plagg?" he calls again before looking around and hearing the familiar rumblings of a stomach. "Oh, _Plagg."_

The kawmi lays on the kitchen counter, ears and antennae flattened against his head as his stomach continues to rumble. " _Pardon,_ Adrien. But I waited so long this morning to even check for Camembert and now there is none. I don't have enough energy to help you become _Chat Noir_ just yet. We need to fill my tummy with the sweet, beautiful cheese and then we can save all of Paris from the _loveliness of ladybugs."_

Taking a breath and sighing, Adrien plucks up Plagg and gently lifts him into his breast pocket. "If Ladybug herself has not already handled it, _oui,"_ Adrien sighs. "But until then, let's find some Camembert. It's definitely not going to be in here!"

* * *

Hearing Tikki's happy, satisfied sighs as they sit by the window fills Marinette with a certain warmth she can't fully articulate. Instead, she smiles around her own breakfast treat and tenderly holds the plate that her Kwami eats from in the air.

"Ah, Marinette, this is the greatest breakfast a Miraculous has ever had!" she compliments sweetly, sighing with a tender smile as she sinks into the plate itself.

With a small laugh of her own, Marinette holds the plate in one hand for Tikki and then uses her free hand to pull her knees up against her chest. "That is a good thing to hear, I will be sure to thank _maman_ and _papa_ twice today! Once for me and once for you!"

Tikki releases a happy noise of contentment. "Ah, Marinette, that is most nice. I hope that you will! And extra kisses, too. What a wonderful first day for spring!"

No sooner had the words left Tikki's mouth than, to her and Marinette's surprise both, a small ladybug lands on the plate right beside the Miraculous.

Marinette and Tikki blink together, looking at the small insect before immediately turning to each other with gleeful grins, fists shaking excitedly.

"What a sign of good luck!" Tikki squeals happily. Then, as if on cue, a second ladybug lands on the plate as well, joining the other in eating crumbs. "Oh! Goodness, Marinette! Twice the luck!"

Watching the scene unfold, Marinette cannot help how her suspicions are raised, watching the scene as a third ladybug lands on the plate and wipes the smile right from Marinette's face. She looks around, seeing ladybugs landing on the window frame and then out on the ledge. More on the rooftop below her window, others flying overhead.

"I don't know about my luck, Tikki," Marinette says warily, getting to her feet as she puts her plate down. She glances over toward her flying, magical friend, then back out to the growing swarms of ladybugs. "Tikki! What is this?"

"Groups of ladybugs, Marinette!" Tikki cries out in equal surprise. "They call them _Lovelinesses_ of Ladybugs, but I have never seen so many at the same time!"

"There is nothing lovely looking about these ladybugs," Marinette says, growing a determined look. "Tikki, this looks like an Akuma! You know what that means!"

"It is time for the Miraculous Ladybug!" Tikki cries out in response.

"That's right! Time to transform!" Marinette declares, getting in stance. The motions are old and comfortable, like she has done them for ages, raising her hand against her cheek and toward her earrings. "Tikki, _spots on!"_

The moment they begin their synchronous dance, Marinette can feel the gleeful joy as power surges through her, up her body guided by her hands, ending in a wave across her face. Then, as suddenly as she started, she ends — Marinette is gone and Ladybug is here instead.

And it's a good thing that she is, as the _lovelinesses of ladybugs_ are growing ever thicker across the skylines of Paris, and the sounds of panic and unrest are not far behind them.

Using her signature yo-yo, Ladybug crosses the city block. Her eyes are cast upward, looking for the source of the infestation of her namesakes, but her first and most important goal is to protect the people of the Parisian streets.

When ladybugs cover a windshield of a car, it is Ladybug's quick thinking and strength that lead to her using her yo-yo to stop the car from going out of control. Then she rescues a woman whose cupcake smelling hairspray has made her an active target. And then a little girl, too frightened to move, is reunited with her worried father thanks to Ladybug's intervention.

They are things which seem like all in a day's work for Ladybug, hero of Paris, and the people are grateful… at first. But the more she rescues and the further along Ladybug goes without finding the source of the swarming _lovelinesses_ the less the gratefulness is spoken and the more a murmuring surrounds all that Ladybug does.

"Why are you doing this?" a man asks when Ladybug manages to capture hundreds of attacking ladybugs in a picnic blanket.

"To protect you, _Monsieur,"_ Ladybug answers as she ties the picnic blanket off.

"Hmph!" the man says, curling his nose. "How is attacking the city with minions protecting me or any of Paris?"

The words are so absurd and unexpected at first that Ladybug doesn't react. She puts aside the ball of ladybugs all together before it even occurs to her what the man is actually saying. She then tenses and looks back in his direction, wide eyed and chagrined at the accusation.

"I do not control ladybugs—" she begins to say but the man is gone into the crowds of apprehensive people all around Ladybug.

She suddenly feels very wary and alone. And the _lovelinesses_ are still coming.

* * *

"Adrien, not to question your every move—"

Running around the corner as his fellow Parisians screamed and ran through the streets, Adrien cannot help but roll his eyes. "And _yet_ …"

"Where are you hoping to find some wonderful food to fill my emptied tummy?" Plagg asks from under the turned over collar of Adrien's shirt.

"I have a friend who lives nearby, and I know her family is very famous for treats of every kind," Adrien answers. "Plus, the news was not far from here. The closer we are to the madness, the faster _Chat Noir_ will be to help Ladybug!"

"You are so full of good plans, Adrien!" Plagg declares excitedly. He looks ahead and stirs slightly. "OOP!" he calls before tucking himself beneath Adrien's collar and out of sight.

Far ahead, close to Marinette's family's bakery, Adrien can see that the sidewalk was crowded with Parisians.

"Drat! They're in the way of the door!" Adrien huffs, beginning to slow his pace as he thinks through the situation.

There is a large part of Adrien's chest which aches for the upset people crowding together. They all seem pinched pink in small places on their skin, and most of their hair is sticking out and unkept as if they were batting at it or running in circles. People randomly dance about from foot to foot, scratching at sleeves and shirt collars in dismay. Periodically, ladybugs would be shaken free and fly off, undeterred by the pestering they were providing.

It is only when Adrien notices that the crowd is gathering close to a cameraman and crew with the reporter from TVi in front that he begins to fully comprehend what is happening before him.

"The question is now being asked of the people of Paris — can a crisis like this be stopped by a hero, or is Ladybug to be proven the root cause of this woe. After all, how can a superhero with a theme like that of insects not be, at the very least inviting such strange occurrences to our beautiful and historical city?"

"What?" Adrien asks, more than a little breathless with the very _notion_ of such accusations.

" _Psst,_ Adrien! _Psst,"_ Plagg whispers, ruffling the collar of Adrien's shirt enough to look up from its shadow. "I can smell food so close, "Adrien! Please fetch me some _delicious_ Camembert!"

"Soon, Plagg," Adrien assures the cat before he tears forward toward the gathered crowd. His brow sets heavily on his face as he does so, his lips pursed.

It takes some shoving forward and pushing aside others in the crowd, but Adrien reaches the front of the cameras, just behind the reporter while others in the crowd grumble in agreement with her sentiments.

It only serves to make Adrien's scowl grow.

"This isn't Ladybug!" he declares loudly for everyone to see. He doesn't bother to swat away at the flyby ladybugs, even as they obscure his view momentarily. The attention of the crowd _and_ of the camera turns to him, but the shyness and reservation that so often crowds Adrien's emotions is dwarfed by his righteous indignation. "Ladybug _is_ a hero, and she _always_ saves Paris at the end of the day. We can't forget any of the good that she has done, especially not for selfish reasons or suspicions! She's our miraculous and _lucky_ Ladybug! And even though she'll save us even without our support, doesn't mean it is right for us to forget what it means for us to give it!"

The reporter and others gathered seem genuinely surprised.

"My goodness! How true!" another in the crowd declares.

"The boy is right! How can we not believe in Ladybug?"

"Whatever causes this will be stopped by Ladybug, not caused by her!"

"Who cares who came first, the Ladybug or the monsters? If the monsters are here, it is a good thing we have a Ladybug!"

Adrien's body relaxes as he hears the confident words. His smile grows as he leans back onto the ballot of his feet, feeling accomplished. Even if he's not in time to fully help Ladybug as Chat Noir, at least he knows that he supported her and defended her honor as Adrien Agreste.

He feels, deep within himself, that it _surely_ must be enough.

"Say," the reporter tilts her head as she speaks into her microphone, "aren't you Adrien the boy model? I wrote a magazine article with you on the cover a few weeks—"

Before Adrien can even reboot his brain to think of a good response, right beneath his collar Plagg's stomach lets out a tremendous noise of desperation. It is loud enough that everyone around him jolts back slightly with surprise.

Realizing how odd this looks, Adrien gives an uneasy smirk and doubles over his stomach theatrically. "Oh, I have yet to have breakfast! _Excusez moi!_ "

Without another moment's distraction, he takes off still holding his stomach, toward the bakery so nearby.

"Good cover, Adrien!" Plagg stage whispers from his hiding cove. "But was it necessary to take our detour?"

"It is _always_ necessary to help a friend in any way," Adrien answers confidently as he bursts through the bakery's doors, "no matter how small, Plagg. Eat up whatever you want, _mon amie_ , your breakfast is on me!"

Not needing a second say, Plagg flies out from Adrien's shirt and begins to do just that.

* * *

Ladybug's determination to protect all of Paris is the only thing keeping her in check moving forward.

It takes some ingenuity — crafting various traps from nets, from sticky tapes, to using large tarps from a nearby park — to capture as many of the _lovelinesses_ as possible. And she does, using her agility and speed as the miraculous Ladybug to do work with twice or thrice the speed of a normal Parisian girl.

And yet each time she captures clusters of ladybugs, she turns to find more in their place, a seemingly unending amount. all around her. It is all driving her rather mad. But not nearly as mad or as upsetting as the chilling words and distrust of the people of Paris.

Her failures time and time again feel like blatant faults she has as a superhero. As a person.

She feels, even as Ladybug, like her armor is chipped. Like she is incapable and never deserved the faith of Paris to begin with.

"What am I going to do?" she asks herself, feeling more dismay than ever before.

She ducks beneath a swarm of ladybugs flying overhead and walks with tiredness and futility toward the edge of the rooftop she is on. She needs a greater view of the city, and of the chaos she is to deal with still.

What she isn't expecting is to see Adrien among the angry and disgusted crowd of Parisians complaining about her on the news.

At that moment, Ladybug's heart begins to break. She squeezes her eyes shut and shakes her head. " _Mon dieu_ , I am so sorry. I am so sorry, everyone. I am sorry, Paris. And I'm _so_ sorry, Adrien. I am not responsible for the _loveliness_ invasion, but I haven't been able to think my way out of it just yet either."

She knows her words, especially spoken with such a small voice that it might as well have been spoken by Marinette Dupain-Cheng rather than the superhero Ladybug, are not going to be heard. And saying them brings a burdensome heaviness to her chest unlike what she has felt before. But she needs the reprieve, however briefly, as the storm of ladybugs continues.

But there _is_ one loud voice which everyone, including Ladybug, can hear. And it is from the crowd.

"This isn't Ladybug!"

Ladybug's eyes open wide with surprise and she leans in closer, looking bak at the crowd again. "Adrien?" she whispers to herself.

"Ladybug _is_ a hero, and she _always_ saves Paris at the end of the day. We can't forget any of the good that she has done, especially not for selfish reasons or suspicions!" he admonishes the crowd and all of Paris through the news. "She's our miraculous and _lucky_ Ladybug! And even though she'll save us even without our support, doesn't mean it is right for us to forget what it means for us to give it!"

The tides of the crowd's emotions soon change thanks to Adrien's words and Ladybug herself feels a warmth and confidence spread from her core out to every centimeter of her skin and bones.

Adrien is right, of course. She will save Paris, it is her duty. And she was going to even without his bold declarations. But to still hear them, to still know she has his unwavering belief and confidence, touches something that both as Ladybug and as Marinette she has wanted for a long time.

Even greater than her love of Adrien is her love for Paris and all the family and friends within it. And having that love shown back reminds her of all the reasons why.

" _Merci,_ Adrien," she says.

Ladybug, with renewed energy and strength, turns back to the gatherings of her namesake all across the Paris terrain. "Think, think. Tikki tells you things about ladybugs all the time! Groups of ladybugs are _lovelinesses._ Ladybugs are lucky. Ladybugs like the spring. But what do ladybugs _want—"_ Glancing toward the nearby trees and seeing ladybugs gathering by its unbloomed flowered, Ladybug remembers the time of year. "It is spring. And ladybugs like… _warm!_ That is it! We need something warm to attract the ladybugs and get them away from the city!"

"It sounds as though my lady has a plan already."

A big smile grows on Ladybug's face as she turned and saw Chat Noir landing on the rooftop near her. He seemed confident and nonchalant as always.

"Chat Noir! Good to see you. I may need your help!"

"Ah, I live to serve, _ma coccinelle!_ I knew you would be on top of everything," he smiled affectionately.

Ladybug lets out a small sigh and tilted her head to the side, pigtails bouncing with her movement. "I am _now._ I simply needed a boost."

A concerned look crosses the cat's face. "Are you alright, Ladybug? I hope you were not listening to the general silliness today. People can say strange things when upset. You shouldn't listen to the city at its worst times."

"Sometimes listening to the city is exactly what gives me my ideas, though, Chat Noir. You just need the right type of people in the city to listen to. And I know a few I will always listen to."

"Oh? Is it me?" he jokes.

"No, no, though I _sometimes_ listen to you," Ladybug laughs. "Who I listen to… I listen to good people. people whose hearts I can see are all for Paris, too." She smiles fondly as she glances back to the streets, even though Adrien and most of the people are long gone from them. "Like dear Adrien Agreste."

Chat Noir made a strangled, choking noise at her side before going stiff as a board, his shoulders and ears perked high in the air like a cat which curled its back.

"What are you doing?" Ladybug asks, brows knit together in confusion.

"I… It's nothing, Ladybug… just…" he fumbles and bumbles along as he tries desperately to regain his composure and flatten his hair again.

She raises a brow at him but before she could wait for Chat Noir to straighten himself out, people began screaming in dismay across the city again, grabbing both of their attention.

"We need to get something warm to attract the ladybugs to, Chat Noir! We can talk about this later!" she tells him sternly. "Let's go!"

"The city's newly installed solar panels, Ladybug! If we move them to direct heat from the sun, the ladybugs may just go to them!"

"Good idea, let's get moving!"

* * *

Chat Noir is known for his collective demeanor and suave. Even f those very traits seem to be the opposite of how he feels or, more importantly, what his dear Ladybug sees in him. But it is also that true sight, the ability to see beyond his mask, that he has always found so attractive and lovely about his dear Ladybug.

And then he comes to see that her vision is either more blind than he thought or, maybe, _hopefully,_ goes farther than he can ever hope to imagine.

"Have you seen any signs of Akuma, Chat Noir?" she calls back to him as she tosses her signature yo-yo, wrapping it around the panels' adjustable end and tugging them into the direction of the sun's rays.

Pulled from his thoughts, Chat Noir bristles. "Hm? Oh! Yes. No. No signs of Akuma, my lady!" he replies, strained.

She stares at him curiously before moving on to the next panel.

Realizing that he has not been particularly helpful, Chat smacks his own forehead and pulls out his bo staff to begin racing by panels, knocking them into the same direction with a bit more destructive force than Ladybug's methods.

It's enough action to seemingly pull Ladybug's attention away from his behavior. That alone gives the catlike superhero a bit more space to breathe.

Once ladybugs, drawn by the sunlight and warmth reflected by the solar panels, begin to close in, Ladybug stops and gives herself time to put a hand to her chin and look reasonably worried. "But if there is no Akuma, what brought this strange _loveliness_ to Paris?"

Chat Noir blinks at the statement, taking awe at Ladybug's radiance among the sunlight, and then sees for himself, as some ladybugs choose to land on Ladybug's shoulders and pigtails rather than join the others swarming in the concentrated warmth.

"You," Chat Noir says out loud, eyes widening. When Ladybug looks at him, he sputters in an attempt to continue with his revelation. "You, Ladybug! _You_ bring the loveliness to Paris."

Rolling her eyes, Ladybug began to turn from Chat Noir. "Now is not the time for flirting, Chat Noir—"

"No, no, I mean! It's _you_ who brings the ladybugs here!" he points toward the ladybugs landing on her costume.

The hurt that comes across Ladybug's face almost immediately makes Chat Noir curse his own fallible tongue. "Not you, too, Chat—"

"I am not blaming you, Ladybug. I would _never_ blame you, you are protector of Paris," he affirms quickly.

"Then what do you mean by this?"

"I mean to say… they are drawn to you — the ladybugs for some reason are drawn to you, the same way I am," he explains, walking toward her. "Why do ladybugs come together? What draws them besides warmth?"

Her eyes search his face for a long moment, assessing how serious he is being, before she hugs her shoulders and looks at him worriedly. "I do not know? Spring? Cold? Loneliness—"

"My lady, are you lonely?" he asks her, heart twisting in knots.

"Of course not, you're here," she shrugs.

"But when I am not…?" he says, taking in how the swarms and swarms of ladybugs from across Paris continue to gather and disperse into smaller groups. Into pairs.

"When we are not Ladybug and Chat Noir?" she clarifies. "No. I have friends and family and… Maybe. Sometimes."

Smiling, Chat Noir holds out his hand, surprising Ladybug yet again. "My dear Ladybug, be lonely no more. Let me be there, even when Paris does not need her defender."

Ladybug pulls back slightly. "But we cannot…"

"I believe, for the _loveliness_ my lady deserves, we _must,"_ Chat Noir says strongly. "After all, you as Ladybug are my lady, one of my dearest friend, and I want to be yours. Not only as Chat Noir, but also without the miraculous. I want to be…"

Seeing that Ladybug has still not accepted his hand, Chat Noir looks down to it, observes the ring upon the hand carefully, before reaching down and beginning to pull it off.

"Chat!" Ladybug tries to warn.

But he is determined. _Adrien_ is determined.

The ladybugs are clearing from the air, and with his heart racing, Adrien removes his ring and takes a breath as his powers, his costume, the whole persona he has built around Ladybug has disappeared from his skin, has left him and a shocked sounding Plagg.

He is anticipating anything, but he is hopeful for positivity given Ladybug's mentions of _Adrien Agreste_ earlier. But when the air is strangely quiet, he looks to see for himself that Ladybug has squeezed her eyes shut, covered them with her hand, and turned her shoulders away from Adrien's direction.

"Ladybug…" Adrien utters, a little amused and a little disappointed. "Don't you want to be friends as we are?"

"Identities are secret and sacred and…" Ladybug straightens up slightly, eyes still closed though she drops her hands from her face. "That voice… Chat Noir, your voice is so familiar…"

"I would hope so, you heard it recently… _my lady,_ " Adrien offers teasingly, though the confidence has largely left his tenor. He needs to clear his throat just to gather himself again, sound a little more like his more confident self.

"I know you!" she gasps before, accidentally judging by her own shock, Ladybug opens her eyes and sees Adrien for herself. The noises she makes are audible, her cheeks flaring into a brilliant pink. "Adrien!?"

He smiles at her and offers a small wave. "Um. _Bonjour?_ "

Ladybug is incapable of a proper response it seems, so she instead reaches up and, fumbling and awkward herself, removes her earrings. When she does so, she reveals herself in a brilliant flash of light, one that dissipates and causes Adrien to make his own strangled noises.

" _Marinette?"_ he gasps out, a warmth growing on his own cheeks.

She looks slightly less assured as she waves a few fingers his way. "I… I… suppose there is much for us to catch up on," she laughs subconsciously.

"No," Adrien corrects gently, feeling like all of his understanding is slowly coming together. "Not much at all. Because seeing you her and now just reminds me of all the _loveliness_ that you've brought to my life. As Ladybug _and_ as Marinette."

Marinette smiles in turn and this time _she_ reaches out to offer her hand. "Thank you, Adrien. The same to you."

Without hesitation, without any sense of loneliness or isolation within their fair city, Adrien takes the hand that is offered to him. And, immediately, he can feel the swell of that warmth the other ladybugs had been seeking out.

There is nothing warmer than the _loveliness_ of friendship and something even a little more — a partner.


End file.
